Your Garden Guy: What's blooming in the winter garden?

My winter garden is starting to pop with color. Daphne odora (amazing fragrance), camellia Japonica, edgeworthia (so fragrant), a daffodil here and there, and perennial vinca (it's kind of a weed) are all blooming!

On the warmer days, get a start on spring cleaning. Remove leaves and debris from beds and add fresh mulch as needed.

Buy now for the best selection of spring and summer bulbs, like caladium.

How about a garden gift for that special someone for Valentine's Day? This year, give a live plant that can be planted outside after the holiday is over.

Turn the handles of your garden tools into rulers. Use a yard stick and a permanent marker to mark feet and half feet on the handles of tools. This is a time-saver and more accurate than guessing the depth of a hole or the distance between shrubs.

Now is the time to cut back liriope and other ornamental grasses. Use scissors for small areas; use a string trimmer for larger projects.

Crape myrtle can be pruned now. Pruning will encourage new growth; flowers are produced each year on new growth.

Palms add an interesting accent to the landscape. Cold-hardy tree forms include cabbage palm and windmill palm. Cold hardy shrub forms include saw palmetto and dwarf palmetto. These palms are reliable hardy in zones 8A and south.

In a vase of water, add cut branches of forsythia, deciduous magnolia and quince to force them into bloom indoors.

Now is a good time to dig and re-plant existing landscape shrubs. Get as much of the root system as possible. Remember, the older the plants, the less chance of survival.

Todd Goulding provides residential landscape design consultations. Contact him at www.fernvalley.com or 478-345-0719.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:03 PM with the headline "Your Garden Guy: What's blooming in the winter garden? ."